Radio

The French were the first to start broadcasting in Morocco in February 1928, when radio signals were sent from the city of Rabat with a two–kilowatt medium-wave transmitter.

News programs were tightly supervised by the Résident General, who was positioned to appoint the director of Radio Morocco (Alami, 1985). Similarly, in the north of the country, the Spanish colonial power established Radio Dersa Tetuan. From this point on in the international zone, Tanger witnessed an emergence of several radio stations, such as Radio Tanger, Voice of America and Radio Africa Maghreb. These, like the earlier foreign owned Arabic newspapers, offered a variety of programming to boost colonial intentions, while criticizing competitive colonial powers over Morocco (Alami, 1985: 22). All these radio stations were in the hands of foreign powers.

Radio, in turn became the key form of Moroccan communication and resistance against the French in their fight for independence. Nationalist leaders voiced their ideas from radio stations based in Spain and Italy. As a response to this new situation, the French colonial power issued the Dahir of July 1929 to extend and define the scope of the monopolisation to include all signal transmission tools whether they are audio or visual, since the first Dahir was limited solely to telephony and telegraphy. This restriction was designed initially to prevent Moroccans from using Radio for political uses. Moroccan nationalists intensified their radio use in the independence battle by using the Voice of Cairo, which allowed them to communicate their political messages to influence others to fight for the independence (Alami, 1985: 22).

As early as 1960s, a central radio station characterised the development of radio broadcasting in Morocco. The development of the national information system in Morocco was decidedly framed and formed by the regime. In 1962, the regime reorganized the county’s broadcasting structure under a radio service in Rabat by the name of Al-Idaa Wat-Talfaza Al-Maghribiya (Moroccan Radio and Television, MRT). During the Protectorate, the technical infrastructure of the studios was respectable in the light of the time. The airing covered only the coastal region of Casablanca and Rabat and some big cities such as Fez and Meknes. The regime bought the exiting infrastructure of some studios in Tangier and in Tetoun and gave priority to the broadcasting system. Consequently, the regime took a series of actions to restore and develop radio broadcasting services.

King Hassan II took reference of the development of radio in Morocco between 1962 and 1970. By 1960, however, the regime began the process of establishing a Moroccan radio system. The early stages of radio operations were from Morocco’s early introduction to the radio came from the colonial power and from foreigners living in the country.

To build a national network, the regime established several regional radio stations in this period. The regime installed in Marrakech (1958), Fez (1961), Oujda (1962), Agadir (1971), Laayoune (1976), Dakhla (1980) and Tetuan (1982). In today’s Morocco, the radio sector consists of a national network radio station in Rabat and nine regional radio stations.²⁶ The national radio covers via long waves 95 percent and on a medium wave about 85 percent of the country (Jaidi, 1999: 226).

Already in 1952 Radio Morocco broadcasted about 171 hours weekly 75 in French, 60 hours in Arabic, 20 in Berber and half in Spanish and 5,30 in English. With the development of radio in 1960s the potential of the radio as a national propaganda tool appeared obvious. Radio became the most important and popular talk and cultural medium and thus occupied a significant place with Moroccan society.

Much of the post-independence broadcasting development in Morocco was based on the framework set down by the French. In 1957 Moroccan Radio had three programs:

the A program in French and (75 hours per week), the B program in Arabic (60 hours) and Berber (20 hours), and the C program in Spanish (10.5 hours) and English (5.5 hours). In

26 In the 1960s, the modernization of the broadcasting was the result of the cooperation between Morocco and European countries such as France and Italy. The governments of both these countries were largely responsible for building the infrastructure and upgrading radio facilities. From a network of three stations at the time of independence, Morocco’s radio had grown into a major network of almost nine radio stations.

1958 Radio Morocco were officially renamed as Moroccan National Radio (Jaidi, 1999:

226).

Up until 1981, radio was organized as MRT and operated under the information ministry. As a second national radio program, the private broadcast Medi 1, which has become within years the most popular radio broadcast in Morocco. Its program’s offerings are in the areas of information, culture education and entertainment. The airing programme of Medi 1 is actually about 23 hours daily from 5:00 A.M. and remains on the air until 2:00 A.M. Since 3 March 1993 the Programmes were broadcasted by means of satellite and were also available on the Internet. Daily airing hours have been extended from 20 hours in 1991 to 23 hours in 2002.

Radio broadcasting enjoyed its golden age during 1970s. People used to listen to radio almost the whole day. The number of radio receivers in the country increased from 512,000 in the late 1960s to three millions in 1980s. The number of receivers peaked in mid-1990s. In 1997 estimates placed the number of radio receivers at 6, 62 Mio. This calculates to one radio set for every three listeners in Morocco. There were 3, 6 radio receivers for every 1000 per. Today, 80 percent of Morocco’s population of about 30 million people can receive radio signals. The regime extended radio services to reach most Moroccan citizens especially in isolated areas were a top political priority. The advent of TV and satellite broadcasting, however, dramatically affected radio. The number of radio listeners declined substantially in the 1990s.

In addition, Morocco offers a program under the name of International Channel.

This station airs programming on short-wave 19 hours daily, 16, 3 hours French, 1.3 hours English and one hour Spanish broadcast. 50 percent of the program consists of music and entertainment, 50 percent consists of culture, sport, education and talks. 90 percent of the programs are live broadcasts. The program reaches many countries and is designed for audiences in and outside Morocco and in particular for Moroccan immigrants in the European countries.

The program of FIC went on the air on 13th October 1987. This station initially broadcasted 10 hours; from 12:00 A.M. to 22:00 P.M. But since Mai 1989 it increased its broadcast time from 10 to 22 hours. FIC provides mostly music (70 percent) but it also broadcasts cultural programs and news on current event. The Program broadcast mainly for the Casablanca area and its environment and is available online.